Sterling SturtevantNovember 30, 2005 7:37 am
 |
Sterling Sturtevant is a name that is not often heard nowadays, but during the 1950s, she was the most prolific female character designer working in the industry. The primary reason for her obscurity is that she died in 1962, long before anybody had bothered to begin documenting the work of Fifties animation designers. She started at Disney in the late 1940s, and during the 1950s, she was a well known and in-demand designer who worked primarily at UPA, where she redesigned Mister Magoo in 1953, and Playhouse Pictures, where she designed advertising characters like the Ford Dog and Burgie (Burgermeister Beer). Below is a model sheet for a Chrysler DeSoto commercial that was produced at Playhouse. It is very typically Sturtevant with clear graphic shapes and a lack of ornament. This simplicity in design allowed the animators to have a lot of fun with her designs and really push the shapes around from pose to pose. This particular spot has some incredible animation by Rod Scribner. I’ll post more of her work in a while.
(click on image for larger version)
(model sheet from the collection of Jerry Beck)
and i thought Mary Blair was the only famous female artist during those days. I didn’t know any other famous female other than Mary and June..Amid, did she had a long career at disney i haven’t heard anything about her on certain disney sites, was she part of the 1940’s strike as well? anyhoo, i think i’ll try to find that out for myself but thanks for this very noteworthy tidbit of animation info amid..kudos!!!
Comment by lloyd — November 30, 2005 @ 4:33 pm
She started at Disney around ‘47-48 so it was well after the strike. She had been attending Chouinard and I believe it was Don Graham who recommended her for the Disney job. I don’t know much about her work there, other than her doing story sketches on the Pluto short BONE BANDIT. Couldn’t have been there more than a couple years before moving to UPA.
Also, while Sturtevant was the most well known of the bunch, there were other woman designers including Dolores Cannata, Bernyce Rankin, and Charleen Peterson. There was also Michi Kataoka, who was a color stylist at UPA in the early-50s (see GERALD MCBOING BOING’S SYMPHONY in an earlier post), and Shirley Silvey and Rosemary O’Connor who were layout artists, so in general, there were a lot more women in creative positions than there had been in the decades prior.
Comment by Amid — December 1, 2005 @ 4:39 am
that’s so very interesting amid..i bet there’re a lot more interesting facts you’ve gathered up in your upcoming book..i’m not from the states so the cover price will certainly change but it’ll be worth the extra bucks..
Comment by lloyd — December 1, 2005 @ 5:18 pm
Interesting. Those little guys on the model sheet are really fun! It’s a perfect size for a desktop background, too.
Comment by Eric — December 2, 2005 @ 11:36 am
Hi Amid. This blog is so cool. I don’t know if you’ve seen this site. But I think you’d be interested in this and add to your blog: http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/rayart.html
Comment by Serapio — December 5, 2005 @ 3:08 am
hey Amid have you seen this cartoon already it’s an educational short done by the John Sutherland Prod. this cartoon was art directed by Maurice Noble..well maybe you’ve seen this already but here’s the link anyway http://www.archive.org/details/ItsEvery1954
Comment by lloyd — December 5, 2005 @ 9:46 pm
How’d she die (couldn’t find info on Google)? 40’s awfully young.
Comment by the theorist — December 10, 2005 @ 4:15 pm
My mother died of pancreatic cancer three months after I was born. I was unaware until recently that she had been sick for 2-3 years before that. Her cancer was linked to the use of early acrylic paints. There have been articles in ArtForum that a much higher percentage of artists who used these paints contracted pancreatic cancer than “average” or “normal.”
She was also a member of the California Watercolor school and friends with Rex Brandt, Phil Dike and Millard Sheets. I received and declined the Millard Sheets scholarship to Claremont Graduate School, which is how I learned this. My favorite art teacher in Claremont, who knew my mother, is the one who gave the the ArtForum articles about the link to pancreas cancer.
Comment by Amy Sterling Casil — June 15, 2006 @ 2:12 pm